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Category: Dating Site

Founded by Whitney Wolfe, Bumble is the dating website where women make the first move. This innovation was designed to address some of the key problems that plague other dating apps and social networks. For example, many women were aghast at receiving nude pictures as an opening salvo on some apps. Whitney Wolfe has long wanted to bring better manners and good behavior to the world of tech.

Wolfe cut her teeth at Tinder. In fact, she was a co-founder. When she departed, she never wanted to work on a dating app again. She was focused on developing a social network for women only. But Andrey Andreev of Badoo knew that her experience in the world of dating was too good to pass up. He urged her to combine her concept of a women-centric social network with a dating app.

Whitney Wolfe’s friends and then-boyfriend (now husband) Michael Herd agreed with his assessment. They pointed out that she had a willing investor right there in Badoo. Wolfe concurred. These days, it’s clear that founding Bumble was the right move. With 30 million users, it’s a successful app and still has plenty of room to expand.

The approach taken by Whitney Wolfe and her team is unique, to say the least. They’ve focused on branding. Instead of being driven by engineers, Wolfe’s ideas drive development. They tell the engineers what to build, instead of the engineers telling them what they have. In many tech startups, the branding and tech sides struggle to put those pieces together. In Bumble, Whitney Wolfe created an app that’s made-to-order.

Whitney Wolfe’s approach is different in other ways, too. She has focused on bringing people together in the office. For example, there are 25 desks at Bumble’s Austin headquarters, but 50 employees. Wolfe expects people to be meeting in conference rooms or otherwise sharing ideas in common areas. And this approach is working incredibly well.

Bumble also has a physical space in New York City. Located close to luxury retailer Balenciaga, Bumble’s so-called “hive” is another space where potential users can get to know the brand. And like her original concept, it’s a way to bring women together socially.